Roger Benedict
violist - conductor
General Biography
Roger Benedict’s wide-ranging career has encompassed work as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral player, teacher and more recently, conductor. In January 2002 he moved from the UK to Australia, to take up positions of Principal Viola of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Artistic Director of the orchestra’s Fellowship Program.
He discovered the viola at the age of seventeen, having previously learned both the violin and piano. His studies took him to the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, and to the International Musicians’ Seminar at Prussia Cove. A highly sought-after teacher himself, he was a Professor at the Royal Northern College of Music from 1997-2002, and is a Tutor to the European Union Youth Orchestra. Roger Benedict is now Senior Lecturer at the Sydney Conservatorium, is on the resident faculty at the Australian National Academy of Music in Melbourne, and gives masterclasses worldwide. His students have won positions in major orchestras and ensembles all over the world.
In 1991, at the age of 29, Roger Benedict was appointed Principal Viola of the Philharmonia Orchestra, London. He left the Philharmonia in 2000 to dedicate more time to solo work, chamber music and conducting, before accepting the position of Principal Viola with the Sydney Symphony. He is also regularly invited to perform as guest principal viola with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
As a viola soloist Roger Benedict has appeared with the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Ulster Orchestra in the UK as well as the Sydney Symphony in Australia and the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa in Japan. For BBC Radio Three he has recorded Walton’s Viola Concerto, Vaughan-Williams’ Flos Campi and Michael Berkeley’s Viola Concerto, of which he gave the highly acclaimed world premiere performances at the Royal Festival Hall and the Brighton and Lichfield Festivals. For ABC Classic FM in Australia he makes frequent broadcasts, both as soloist and chamber musician. He has performed Richard Strauss’s Don Quixote many times, including performances with Lynn Harrell at the Royal Festival Hall and with Steven Isserlis at the Edinburgh Festival, and has also recorded the work for CD. With the Sydney Symphony he gave performances of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante in 2002 and 2004, Berlioz’s Harold in Italy in November 2005, and Andrew Ford’s The Unquiet Grave in 2007. In October 2009 he will give three performabces of Vaughan-Williams’ Flos Campi with them. In February 2009 he will appear in the opening concerts at the new Melbourne Recital Centre, performing Morton Feldman’s Rothko Chapel.
As both recitalist and chamber musician Roger Benedict has appeared at London’s Wigmore Hall and Purcell Room, as well as at all the major festivals and concert series in the UK, and his chamber music partners have included such musicians as Lorin Maazel, Sir Simon Rattle, Louis Lortie and Leif Ove Andsnes. In Australia he performs widely as a chamber musician, as a guest with such groups as the Macquarie Trio Australia and Sydney Soloists. Other engagements have included chamber concerts and recitals in Scandinavia, South Africa, the Middle East and Japan.
Passionately committed to the performance and promotion of contemporary music, Roger Benedict has given many world premieres, especially with the London Sinfonietta, an ensemble he appeared regularly with before moving to Australia.
Alongside his career as an instrumentalist Roger Benedict has recently begun to establish himself as a conductor. At the Sydney Conservatorium he has conducted the Symphony Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra, and also conducts concerts each year at the Australian National Academy of Music. For the Sydney Symphony he conducted the Playerlink program in 2002, and a series of education concerts in 2005. In March 2006 he conducted two concerts with the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra, and in 2007 appeared in New Zealand with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra.
Roger Benedict plays a fine Carlo Antonio Testore viola made in Milan in 1753.